your gift? uh... whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. ship fedex express by december 22nd for christmas delivery. what the heck was that? i'm toure. it was baffling, befuddling, absurd. >> i'm krystal ball. here's a word. really, john boehner? really? that's all i have to say. okay, not really. >> i'm s.e. cup. it's kerry. the president makes his official pick for secretary of state. >> i'm steve kornacki. excited like a kid with a new puppy on christmas morning or something like that. any day you can talk about the intricacies of new jersey politics i love it. >> what travellers are not loving it the holiday travel mess. a check of the weather and what it means to get to grandma's. come on over the river and

through the woods to "the cycle." >> we begin with what could only be described as one of the weirdest press conferences in recent memory. with nra's chief wayne lapierre giving what felt less than a news conference and more than a 30 minute case for ending gun violence with more guns. >> the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. i call on congress today to act immediately to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation. and to do it now. to make sure that blanket safety is in place when our kids return to school in january.

>> oh, boy. this news conference monolog was interrupted not once but twice by protesters who wrote this on sheets. >> nra scope killing our children. it's the nra and the assault weapons that are killing our children. not armed teachers. we got to end the violence. we got to stop the killing. >> so the ceo of the nation's largest gun lobby echoed the old refrain guns don't kill people, people kill people. seven days after newtown, lapierre called for armed police in every school and a national mental health registry. that's right. register people who have mental health problems but no registry for gun buyers and owners. let's bring in mike who is in washington. >> reporter: the feeling is the nra may have helped its cause and the nra may have helped its

fundraising cause. nra may have fired up its base. but the nra did nothing to help its cause here on capitol hill. quite the opposite. what we've heard from lawmakers today in the wake of that wasn't even a press conference he didn't take questions. in the wake of that statement that wayne lapierre made was that the impetus now -- they almost have fresh momentum. we heard diane feinstein one of the principal authors of gun legislation that has new life now. she says it doesn't matter how long it takes it may take a year, two years, three years, the conventional wisdom is after the horror from newtown dies down somewhat, after the outrage and anger has subside, congress doesn't get down to case until february after the inauguration, after the state of the union. she says they will not knuckle under they will keep at it. she's talking about buy back legislation, buy back of gun legislation. these talking about strengthening the federal firearms act, closing those loopholes for registration for

background checks. bill clinton called her offering to do whatever he could to provide more impetus to push this legislation through congress and richard blumenthal from connecticut from newtown, connecticut said the nra maid itself irrelevant in the debate. >> the nra's statement today is sadly and shamefully inadequate calling for more guns and rejecting real action against gun violence. at a defining historic moment for our nation demanding courageous leadership the nra has declined to step forward as a credible and constructive partner. >> reporter: so at the very least a tone deaf statement from the nra today and really inflamed and energized the proponents of gun control here on capitol hill. >> thank you very much. let's bring in bloomberg "newsweek" senior writer and is

the author of "glock the rise of america's gun." the nra blamed everything but the gigantic number of guns in america a situation which they worked very hard to create. they blamed video games, music, nobody watches music videos any more. they had the audacity to roll out a new product guns for every school. that's good for business. are you surprised of the tact they took today >> yeah. even i was surprised and i've written about these issues for many years. i thought the nra was going to be conciliatory for at least a day two. the fact they went straight to the mattresses and declared war on everybody in sight from the media to political elites was surprising. and i think they've just chosen a strategy that they are going to preach to their base and go for the fundraising and that's what we saw today. >> paul, let's talk about one of the specific measures that's

been proposed which is a reinstatement of the assault weapons ban from the '90s. i've been somewhat skeptical that's the right political approach because i think the battle lines on that are already very hardened since we've been down that road before and also since the results of that initial ban from tea 90s was mixed and you wrote an article in bloomberg about this about diane feinstein's bill by labeling her forthcoming legislation and updated assault weapons bill and harkening to the misbegotten 1994 law feinstein undercut her credibility right out of the box. i was wonder if you can unpack that for us? >> yeah. i'm afraid this was a political misstep by the democrats, the assault weapons ban while significant to many people, in fact, there isn't any social science evidence that it had any significant effect on crime. and the focus needs to be if you're going to worry about types of weapons that are sold the focus needs be tightly on

ammunition capacity not the type of rifle but the number of rounds that it can fire and i think democrats would be well advised to focus on that rather than talking over and over about assault weapons. >> but, you know, paul, we can take the legislative feasibility aside for a second so we can establish the solutions that might work. the reason why assault weapons didn't work you left weapons made before 994 left on the streets. all the high capacity magazines you had out there still perfectly legal if they were made before 1994. isn't the real issue practically speak field goal you're going to do something in terms of legislation have a real impact you need to go farther. you need an aggressive gun buy back program an aggressive high capacity buy back program. get these things off the street. >> you make a good point. first, buy back programs have been tried over and over again. they tend to bring in a very modest number of old -- >> paul, not to interrupt you.

australia spent $500 million. we've never spent that kind of money in a buy back. that's what it would take. >> it wouldn't work. this is not australia. we have a second amendment. we have people who are passionately devoted to owning guns and we have a fix. we have a problem. we have 300 million guns in private hands and no one is proposing confiscating those guns. if you're serious about gun control you have to decrease the possession of guns, the prevalence of guns and our politics as a matter of realism will not tolerate that. >> back to the assault weapons ban you also sort of talk about the idea that banning assault weapons creates the perception that some guns are safe or less deadly than others which of course is not true and you write that a more promising response to newtown would be one that want stresses keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and the dangerous mentally ill. i completely agree. i just don't know how we do that, though.

you know the improvement act created an incentive for states to register people, california last year submitted eight names, eight in the whole state that system doesn't seem to be working. with newtown, adam lanza might have had mental problems and stole guns from his mom. how would that work? >> we need to as a first step take serious tlais we have on the books. we actually purport to keep track of everyone who has been adjudicated mentally ill, drug addicted, alcoholic and they are not supposed to be able to acquire firearms. before we set new rules how about enforcing those rules. everyone is making fun of wayne lapierre for talking about a registry of the mentally ill. in fact that's already federal law. we're supposed to have a registry of people who have been deemed dangerously mentally ill. the fact we can't get the records we already have into that registry is a sad comment on our ability to buckle down

and actually take action as opposed to having speeches on both sides. >> yeah. wayne lapierre wants to put guns in every school. of course we know they had an armed guard at columbine on that want day who traded fire with those killers. some people on the right don't understand why the left is unhappy about this idea of putting guns in every single school. do you think that's a good idea? >> i don't consider myself to be on the left or right. i have very i diediosyncratic i. yes personally i would put a cop who knows how to use guns i would. is it practical? no. i don't see the serious argument against doing that. >> putting more guns around kids, no serious argument around that? >> not in the hands of trained law enforcement officers. thousands of schools do that. a cop in front of a school might

see the guy in black camouflage with the automatic, semiautomatic coming towards him. it's worth the cost of his salary. >> good stuff. straight ahead our next guest puts the gop in full meltdown mode. how can leadership handle the party with republicans all wanting to beat to their own drummer and it may be friday but a lot of news to get to. we cycle the spin now. ♪ and i brought some corn for popping ♪ ♪ lights are turned down low seventh ♪ let it snow let it snow let it snow ♪ plus a 50% annual bonus. and everyone likes 50% more... [ midwestern/chicago accent ] cheddar! yeah! 50 percent more [yodeling] yodel-ay-ee-oo. 50% more flash. [ southern accent ] 50 percent more taters. that's where tots come from. [ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card

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you said here yesterday and expressed confidence that you were going to pass -- >> sure did. >> -- that bill. [ laughter ] >> what went wrong? >> there was a perception created that that vote last night was going to increase taxes. we had a number of our members who just really didn't want to be perceived as having raised taxes. what went wrong indeed. house republicans are heading home for the holidays as visions of fiscal cliffs dance in their heads. that was torture. that was house speaker john boehner this morning before they left town trying to explain why his plan b didn't take. nbc's luke russert was there for all the late night action. hey, luke, what now? >> what a night. >> what happens now? >> that's a very good question. i don't think anybody in washington, d.c. really knows

what will happen next. there are a bunch of theories. few that we're getting is that possibly the senate could come up with some sort of compromise that could be worked on. maybe teen president's plan goes the house floor, the $400,000 income tax rate plan. maybe we separate all the talk about entitlements and all the talk about the unemployment insurance going forward and those types of things and just work on the tax cuts specifically. but what we do know is that the senate will be back here on thursday the 27th. the house is on recess until possibly then. they could be summoned in on 48 hours notice. they could come up with a compromise. we don't know the pathway forward for that. we assume harry reid and president obama will get involved. how much a role john boehner plays the jury is still out on that. >> thanks, luke. have a good holiday. >> short and sweet for you. i wish i had more answers for

you. >> kansas congressman tim huelskamp one of the four republicans stripped of his committee chair explained why he bucked to the speaker today on "morning joe." >> i disagreed with john boehner, actually caving on tax. he went over to the white house over the weekend and said we'll raise the debt ceiling for a year and take a lever out of the hands of republicans but he did that without the support of the conference as we found out. >> sherman was there for what he calls behind-the-scenes gop meltdown. jake, i'm sure this didn't go the way boehner wanted it to, but it seems there might be an upshot to this. he's either unwittingly or by design shown everyone this is his hard reality, his caucus will not vote for a tax hike and if they do they want significant spending reduction. he's done all he can with this reality. isn't the ball back in the

president's court now? >> it is to a degree, but they still have to pass something. you have to remember that. key go the president and this is what you alluded to. he can go president and say look i can't pass a million dollar threshold how can i get your $250,000 threshold. all he needs is 25 or 26 republicans to go along with that. this plays into a larger discussion about how powerful john bone certificate. that's an open question. he had to pull a bill from the floor. that's the ultimate kind of defeat for a speaker of the house. whether his cache goes down going forward we have to see. this is a crucial moment for him. >> jake, that's definitely one way to read it. you know, republicans won't go along with a million dollar plus tax increase but i got to say if i was a republican and i was fundamentally opposed to any tax increase i wouldn't vote for a bill where i'm going on the record as supporting a tax increase but there's no way it's going to pass, it's not going make any difference, democrats aren't voting for it so you're

asking them to put themselves out there. my question is does that really mean that these republicans who basically scuttled this attempt would not vote for any tax increase of any kind or was this more of a situational circumstance where they did not like being forced to vote on this particular plan? >> so let me flip the script on you. what john boehner was telling his people privately is that he needed them to vote for this because they need to strengthen his hand. if that thing passed the floor he could have said to the president here's what i got for you. now you come to me with something. now he can't do that. what we've reported today is essentially the house republican conference has side lined their negotiator. they denied him the leverage that he was seeking because they didn't want to do this show vote. whatever you think of that that's fine but he now does not have the leverage that he would have had if he could have pass ad bill across the floor to raise taxes on somebody. >> does that mean that they are fundamentally opposed the folks who decide line their negotiate

or are they fundamentally posed to any tax increase or would they go along with a plan that could pass? >> i think at the end. day as we get to december 30th and 31st they are going to vote for something. if they don't vote for it then on january 10th when middle income people see their income tax rates go up as much as 50% the payroll tax credit completely disappear, when they are seeing hundreds of dollars missing from their paychecks like they did with t.a.r.p. when their savings accounts were down the toilet they will call their members of congress and ask them why. a lot of people are starting to think about that reality. >> the congress flipped the script on boehner and now it looks like he's seriously damaged. i imagine he's going to be able to continue as speaker in january partly bus as chuck todd points out nobody else wants the job. what is his future going to be like when he's damaged, he shows

how weak he is with this body. where do you go forward as a speaker like that? >> as he said this morning in his press conference, he's never broken a promise that he's made to the president. so when he has to deliver he says he will deliver. and that's right. you can't beat something with nothing. there's no one that will challenge him. no emerging leader. eric cantor was by his side through this whole thing which is a marked difference from a year ago. when you can't get people to vote for a plan where you say this is my plan, my plan b that's a problem internally four. he personally made his way around-the-house floor and talked to members of congress and said please help me get the leverage that i need with the president and they said no and they turned their backs on him. it's a huge statement. no one is saying he's going to be, you know, kicked out of the speakership like newt gingrich was in the '90s but his power has been diminished. >> obama has the trump card.

the trump card is january 1st. all the bush tax rates disappear on january 1st if there's no deal. i wonder right now, if there's a deal pre-january 1 we know after last night boehner needs significant democratic support to get it through. he has to lean on democrats in the house to do that. you look at all the ground obama was willing to give up. you look what happens after january 1st. i want raises the question if you're obama and the democrats do you rescind that offer that you put out at the start of this week and you say hey you know what the leverage is working for us, forget 400,000 we're back at 250 we want the payroll tax extension. if there's no deal here you're getting rid of all those bush tax cuts. >> that's the pressure from the left. you've seen that today. labor unions are saying get that offer off the table. dmog president and knowing his interactions with boehner i don't think that's going to happen. what john boehner and harry reid and the president all say, a

plan needs to get through both houses of congress. and $250,000 i think it would be a heavy-lift to get $250,000 through the house of representatives especially as you said if it includes unemployment insurance, if it includes the alternative minimum tax. put it plain and simple that's not passing the house. just simply not, the votes are not there. >> would the votes thereabout after january 1st for a quote tax cut that uses $250,000 as the ceiling. >> there's a much better chance especially if you're getting hammered by your constituents at home who are seeing hundreds of dollars missing from their paychecks. >> we'll have a little fun with the fiscal follies of the week coming up. next the shocker of the day, kerry for secretary of state. it's not that surprising. but all, this is a tease, folks, and if that's not enough to keep you watching we'll have an excited steve kornacki when we come back.

excuse me, sir i'm gonna have to ask you to power down your little word game. i think your friends will understand. oh no, it's actually my geico app...see? ...i just uh paid my bill. did you really? from the plane? yeah, i can manage my policy, get roadside assistance, pretty much access geico 24/7. sounds a little too good to be true sir. i'll believe that when pigs fly. ok, did she seriously just say that? geico. just click away with our free mobile app.

oh, let me guess --ou see this? more washington gridlock. no, it's worse -- look, our taxes are about to go up. not the taxes on our dividends though, right? that's a big part of our retirement. oh, no, it's dividends, too. the rate on our dividends would more than double. but we depend on our dividends to help pay our bills. we worked hard to save. well, the president and congress have got to work together to stop this dividend tax hike. before it's too late.

wham, bam, what a news day, including this developing news this afternoon. the president tapped john kerry to succeed hick as secretary of state. >> that didn't happen? >> i'm very proud to announce my choice for america's next secretary of state john kerry. in a sense john's entire life has prepared him for this role. >> all right. so no big surprise. he's between front-runner since ambassador rice pulled her name out of the running. that's not the only political shakeup going down. the story that comes out of the story of secretary of state, john kerry's seat will be open. will scott brown run. he put out a statement saying he would support an assault weapons

ban. and politico shows him up significantly by 20 points on the top for democratic contenders members of the house in massachusetts. members of congress for massachusetts. but i would say this. scott brown benefits from a little bit of, he's got very proud statewide name recognition, he's been out there. people liked him although they re-elected elizabeth warren. most challenging him don't have a strong name recognition. i would caution reading too much into these polls right now. it's still so early. by the time the special election were to roll around things could be in a very different state and scott brown has a lot of liabilities like he did last time around in a liberal state. >> there's a kennedy in the mix for that spot. there's name recognition. >> and ed markey started running against john kerry in 1984. dropped out of the race. made a run 28 years later.

brown, sure we discount the polls right now. the fact that he put out the assault weapons statement is a sign he wants to run for office in massachusetts. the decision he has to make is senate this year and if you win senate 2013 and if you win that senate 2014. you have to win three senate races in three years or governor's race 204 will be open. tough decision. >> what do you expect senator or governor? >> i suspect he personally wants to go for senate. his wife wants him to wait to go for governor. the x factor is the republicans have a candidate they have been pushing charlie baker he ran close in 2010. they want him to run in 2014 and want brown to run in 2013 but smart move for brown is wait until 2014. >> look i want to take it back to d.c. what's interesting about the kerry pick. i think he'll be a solid secretary of state. the thing about obama this is the first time the democrats had a president that was not koud by

vietnam and scars of what democrats did in vietnam and then after vietnam and i think a lot of democrats were afraid to go against iraq because of what tarred them with vietnam. we've been timid for decades because of vietnam and with the obama administration you have a group of people who say we don't think about vietnam. we make the decisions we want to make. kerry brings the vietnam psychic scars back into the forefront of democratic foreign policy. i can't even say this is how it will impact that. but just once again vietnam comes back into the democratic psyche when we had gotten i want out. >> steve, i know you have another race you're excited about. >> we talk about these senate 2014. new jersey this week. big news. cory booker, everybody is ambitious or least favorite. he said this week what a shock he's not going run for governor of new jersey in 2013. that would have been a kamikaze

mission. he's committed to newark. even though he spenz his time in new york. >> i love cory booker. leave him alone. >> the one republican here loves cory booker. >> so now the big issue he wants to represent in 2014, he wants to run for president. 2014 you have a democratic, frank lautenberg who will be 90 in 2014. he's not said he's retiring. frank lautenberg made the biggest mistake he left the senate after three terms. he left the senate. he was miserable for two years he told everybody who asked the biggest mistake he ever made. he caught a break in 2002 when they put him back on the ballot. take a lot to get him out of there but booker could beat him. >> the e.r.a. the potential race that i'm excited about, sanford v sanford an i'm not talking about the 1891 supreme court case.

i'm talking about mark appalachian trail sanford who is rumored to want to run for tim scott's south carolina '01 seat but in a too good to be true twist so does his ex-wife jenni. >> love it. >> amazing. >> it is a movie. >> i hope this happens just so we can talk about it for however long that lasts. >> is this a woody allen movie. >> to anyone who would listen, harts and homer ran against each other. >> peter griffin and his wife did it on "family guy" as well. >> oh, boy. >> so this is actually happening. >> there's a precedent. >> in cartoon. >> cartoon president. welcome to mooseport. the former president runs for mayor of mooseport, maine and his wife comes to town to

endorse his opponent. >> lots to watch for. >> up next, we got a nasty storm here in new york this morning but that's not the half it. snow, winds and driving rain making a mess of travel ahead of the holiday weekend. a check on what you can expect next.

right now our friends in the midwest are digging out from the major snowstorm of the season. it dumped a foot of snow in some areas. in chicago the storm broke a record stretch of 290 days without snow, cancelling 500 flights at o'hare and midway one of the country's busiest airport hubs. in iowa white out conditions led to a chain reaction of crashes involve 30g vehicles, killing two and injuring seven. high winds caused damage in texas and alabama. this morning the national

weather service confirmed it was a category 1 tornado that touched down, the winter hub storm is sweeping through the great lakes and taking aim at the big cities on the east coast. that means us. let's bring in the weather channel meteorologist kelley cass of what we can expect from this holiday storm. how are you kelley. >> i'm great. happy first dave winter. today is the official start of the winter season. in the northeast if you're dreaming of a white christmas you might get your wish. more snow showers in upstate new york. look at your high temperatures. 37 degrees around central park in new york. 40 in louisville. mild temperatures across the south. we're looking at still some unsettled weather across the west with 44 degrees in seattle. rain four but snow in the higher elevations. another system on the west coast for sunday from seattle to l.a. and san diego. middle of the country looks great for traveling. i-35 corridor looks fantastic. most of i-95 should being a

great for traveling as well. once you get inland you'll run into that lake-effect snow. it will pile up. here's a look at your high temperatures. not very high at all. minneapolis your high temperature only 23 degrees will be in the mid-30s from chicago on over towards new york city, 38 degrees in boston not bad in atlanta 59 and be in the 70s in dallas, texas. we are previewing our next storm system. this is a look at your christmas eve. if you're traveling along i-20 between birmingham and atlanta you'll hit rain showers. i-10 along the gulf coast as well. christmas day this is when it gets very interesting with snow across the northern areas of the great lakes on into new york city and actually getting snow on your christmas day and down through the mountains of west virginia and northern virginia we're talking about a wintry mix that means you could see sleet and snow and even just plain old rain mixes in. as you gain elevation we're talking about several inches of snow. looks like for some of you you'll get your white christmas.

back to you. >> kelley cass, winter is here. no thank you. send it back. our trip advisers say half of those pull your hair out moments will occur this holiday just because of travel. 27% specifically because of cancelled and/or delayed flights like the ones we just heard about. one fifth of americans blame bad weather for a grinch like mood. that's why i'm staying in brooklyn this year with my family. that's how we planned it. my sister takes thanksgiving my parents come here, we get christmas we don't have to move. awesome. for those of you stranded at an airport or ingrid lock on the road you need to do like die. our next guest has some advice to calm your nerves. let's bring in our expert wendy sacks. let's say you're like tom hanks in the terminal, get stuck at

the airport. maybe kids with you. only so many things you can do at the airport. what are some tips for people who are just marooned there? >> well, one of the thing you want to make sure do you is book a hotel room early just in case you really get stuck overnight and then you're scrambling at the last minute to actually find a hotel room. you also want to come prepared to the airport. make sure you have a bag with you with extra toiletries and extra supply of clothes not just for yourself but for your children if you're traveling with infants or toddlers still in diaper, make sure you bring an extra supply of diapers. bring medications. anything you might need in an emergency. make sure you're loading up your device with extra games and movies and music for your kids to play with. it can be a nightmare when you get stranded at the airport especially if you're traveling with small children. >> wendy, airports are so frustrating at any time certainly during the holidays but gas is expensive. if you don't want to drive or fly, should we all just make joe

biden's day and ride those beautiful rails home for the holidays? >> if you can book a train, absolutely. you know, it could be a little bit tight right now at this time of year to get a last minute train ticket but i would definitely look into train travel. looks like across the country right now there are major traffic issues and major -- we know airports are cancelling flights. several thousand more were cancelled yesterday. it's going to be ugly. as we saw the weather report before this segment the weather pattern is going to continue for the next few days. >> wendy let's talk about me for a second here. i think that's what our viewers want to know about. i plan on driving down 95 to virginia. when is the best time, worst time to hit the road if you're planning on driving somewhere? >> trip adviser found the majority of our travellers were traveling during off peak times so they wouldn't be marooned by traffic issues. i would not be traveling today,

tomorrow or even the 23rd. those are the busiest travel days. the 24th and 25th can actually be, can lighten up particularly if you travel really early in the day and you hit the road early morning is probably the best time to travel on christmas. >> all right. wendy sacks thank you very much. >> thank you. up next my favorite time of the week. our theme today, christmas follies. ♪ christmas time has come [ woman ] ring. ring.

progresso. in what world do potatoes, bacon and cheese add up to 100 calories? your world. ♪ [ whispers ] real bacon... creamy cheese...

100 calories... [ chef ] ma'am [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. there was the perception somebody might accuse them of raising taxes. merry christmas, everyone. >> and god bless us, everyone. you know, if we're living in the movies instead of that scene this would be when john boehner bursts through the door, debt deal in hand, shouting to the world he didn't miss christmas while planting kisses on luke russert and telling chuck todd to buy the biggest turkey he could find. they would sing "ole langs isla" we have other movie metaphors to

explore. >> can i just say you look very handsome today. >> thank you. >> that's a fetching tie. >> this white shirt and jacket and business suit. >> it's shirt. >> it could be the tie. >> the tie that you got for christmas. >> she got me this lovely pocket square. >> you also look -- >> appreciate it. >> nice color. >> extraordinarily thoughtful of you. >> i gave her half a case of bobbie pins. >> i got a half container of tums. >> it's here somewhere. yes i do have it here. >> i've been touched by the spirit of giving whatever happens to be on my desk. >> i know. >> we have a segment we're supposed to do. >> back to the metaphors. >> movie metaphors and this whole fiscal cliff situation. so, look, plan b we're talking about, what is plan b. nobody could figure it out.

i found somebody who could explain it to us. >> i believe you are inquiring about plan b. that's where we detonate a small nuclear device. in exactly ten minutes this building and everyone in it will be reduced to a pile of rubble. i'll be safely on my helicopter. by this time tomorrow i'll be hunting rhino in botswana. what do you think about that >> that's great. >> we now know why they don't vote for it. robert goulet would be killing rhino in botswana. >> speaking of killing, it's s descent into madness. the movie "apocalypse now," we're going down the river into

heart of madness. let's roll a clip of "apocalypse now." >> he was close. he was real close. i couldn't see him yet but i could feel him. as if the boat were being stucked up river and the river was flowing back into the jungle. whatever was going to happen it wasn't going be the way they call it back in the train. >> as they go down the river they are descending or up the river they are descending in to madness and becoming more and more crazy as they move towards colonel kurts and what it is, martin sheen us as we move up the river, we are losing our mind. colonel kurts -- >> it's not over. >> colonel kurts is d.c. both obama and boehner who is driving us nuts as -- >> metaphors are like jokes. they only work with elaborate

explanations. >> here's my question. if plan b/the morning after bill did not work, is someone pregnant? >> looks like you are pregnant. about eight or nine weeks i'd say. congratulations. >> that's it? >> yeah. take good care of it. >> now the fun part starts. let me make a picture for you, huh. that will be fun. >> those aren't happy tears. that's what john boehner has been looking like. you start to think about who is pregnant and -- >> in nine months what is coming out of whom. >> right. i'm pregnant but john boehner had nothing to do with it. >> are you sure? >> i'm pretty confident snp. >> i don't know. in that metaphor, is it

congressional republicans that are pregnant? >> no. >> with what? >> emotion. a john boehner pregnant? >> the nation is pregnant but we don't know the gender. >> i troo i htried to make the e to you earlier that perhaps it's nancy pelosi that's pregnant because, hear me out -- >> i will. >> she's the person that sort of gains -- she gains a lot in what happened because -- >> did she gain baby weight. >> she looks better, her votes in the caucus look better. >> she's the auntie. >> she's getting the baby. >> we are trying to get something out of all of this and a good deal that will take care of us in one way or another. >> plan "b" fails, so the pregnancy was not terminated. the pregnancy will continue. >> uh-huh. >> does it? >> the pregnancy being the fiscal cliff? >> yes, you're onto something. >> i am onto something. >> was it a miscarriage if plan "b" failed?

>> not a miscarriage. you're pregnant. >> still pregnant. >> but it failed. >> no, plan "b" failed from stopping the pregnancy. >> steve kornacki weigh in on this. >> wake up there. >> who is eating for two? >> i believe robert goulet is pregnant. this comes back -- >> robert goulet. >> if we were trying to mix all these metaphors into something that makes against. >> who do i send the diaper genie to? >> what is the a diaper genie? >> you don't know what a diaper genie? >> i feel like i should. >> you're not missing anything. >> i feel like it's critical information. >> changing diapers is nothing you need to do ever. >> this is the point where i hope the producer is shouting in my ear get out, get out. i haven't heard anything. >> this is the most absurd block we have ever done. >> this is a new record. >> i think we killed it. >> all right.

as we have been talking about speaker boehner's plan "b" tax proposal was one able to get the support of the republican conference. we put up a photo of our facebook page last night of john boehner looking perplexed and we asked you come up with some captions. russ rogers came up with this, i am so lonesome i could cry. we thought it was the best of the bunch. can you do better? join the conversation, and in the true spirit of christmas, share it with a friend. straight ahead, we cycle back to where we begin. toure has some real world proposals on america's gun policies. y. how much is your current phone bill? four sixteen seventy six a month! okay, come with me -- we're gonna save you money. with straight talk at walmart, you get unlimited talk, text and data for only $45 a month per phone. would we get the same coverage? same coverage on america's best networks. you saved $146.76 by switching to straight talk. awesome! now you can afford to share your allowance with me. get the season's hottest smartphones like the samsung galaxy s2 and get straight talk with unlimited data

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a week after the massacre that broke america's heart and we're uncertain if meaningful change will ever occur, the nra's shameful press conference was the roll out of a new product, a gun in every school, the answer to every problem for the nra is always buy more guns. this is unacceptable. the status quo in america is unacceptable. we owe it to those 20 children in newtown to not let their deaths go insane. to tell me there's no path to a less dangerous future is unconscionable. 100,000 maergamericans is shot killed with a gun every year. it's not because we have more mentally ill people than other countries. we have way more guns. we have more retail gun sellers than mcdonald's restaurants. this chart shows america alone in red to denote us having far

more guns than the rest of the world. there are no simple solutions, but gun laws can help. both the violence policy center have found gun laws between gun laws and rates of death. there are many policies that won't destroy the rights of responsible gun owners. closing the gun show loophole is common sense. some call gun shows tupperware parties for thugs. everyone buying a begun for america should submit to a break ground check and registration, including online sales. criminalize straw purchasing. once you own a gun, it should remain your responsibility and if a crime is committed with it, you become an accessory. gun trafficking transparency, the tired amendment that restricts police access to crime gun trace data. the cdc is not allowed to study ways to stop gun violence.

there is no national gun registry. all this is then ra shrouding the prawn and we must microstamp bullets so we can trace them and get a permanent director of the atf which obama has never had thanks to gop obstruction. an assault weapons ban is common sense and not one riddleed with loopholes. limit the purchase of guns to one a month. limit the purchase of ammunition. end stand your ground laws that encourage people to shoot first and ask questions later. i'm not sure if all of that would have stopped newtown, but it would change the gun culture and save some lives and make it harder to do something like that. doing nothing is immoral. guns in schools is not the answer. columbine had an armed guard and as david frum tweeted today, semi autos fire 45 to 60 bullets a minute. how fast can a retired cop run from one end of ach